[How To] Root Nexus S on Jelly Bean or Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.x)
July 20, 2012 55
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You have updated your Nexus S to Jelly Bean or Ice Cream Sandwich and now you want root access. Who do you call? No one. Just follow this guide and you should have root back on your Android 4.x Nexus S (any variant) in no time.
Disclaimer: This guide is intended as a helpful “how to”. Ashraf and dotTech are not responsible for any gain or loss (including but not limited to bricked devices) incurred as a result of following this guide. Root your device at your own risk. Rooting may void your warranty.
Before We Begin
Before we begin rooting you must have an unlocked bootloader. To unlock your bootloader, do the following:
Note: Unlocking your bootloader will wipe all data on your Nexus S and it may void your warranty. Proceed further at your own risk.
- Make sure Nexus S drivers are installed on your computer.
- Install Fastboot and ADB on your computer, if you haven’t already.
- Shutdown your phone.
- While the Nexus S is turned off hold the Volume Up and Power buttons simultaneously until the Nexus S turns on and is in Fastboot Mode. You will know your device is in Fastboot Mode when it says FASTBOOT MODE in red text at the top. Also the screen will list a bunch of information such as HW VERSION, BOOTLOADER VERSION, BASEBAND VERSION, etc.
- Connect your Nexus S to your computer.
- Open command prompt on your computer and type “fastboot oem unlock” without the quotes.
- Accept the caution on your Nexus S’s screen.
- Let the device work.
- When it is done boot back into Nexus S until you see the home screen.
Root Nexus S on Jelly Bean or Ice Cream Sandwich
The following root method should work with all Nexus S variants (i9020T, i9020, i9023, i9020A, etc.). This method is specifically for Android 4.x versions, which includes Jelly Bean or Ice Cream Sandwich.
To root your Nexus S do the following:
Note: Rooting may void your warranty. Proceed further at your own risk.
- Make sure Nexus S drivers are installed on your computer.
- Install Fastboot and ADB on your computer, if you haven’t already.
- Download SuperUser app and binary and place it on your Nexus S’ internal storage.
- Download custom recovery img on your computer and place it in the same C:\Android folder you placed Fastboot and ADB in.
- Shutdown your phone.
- While the Nexus S is turned off hold the Volume Up and Power buttons simultaneously until the Nexus S turns on and is in Fastboot Mode. You will know your device is in Fastboot Mode when it says FASTBOOT MODE in red text at the top. Also the screen will list a bunch of information such as HW VERSION, BOOTLOADER VERSION, BASEBAND VERSION, etc.
- Connect your Nexus S to your computer.
- Open command prompt on your computer and type “fastboot flash recovery C:\Android\recovery-clockwork-6.0.0.6-crespo.img” without the quotes.
- Wait for it to do its thing.
- Unplug your Nexus S from your computer.
- Now turn off your Nexus S (select “Power Off” from Fastboot Mode screen).
- Hold the Volume Up and Power buttons to boot into Fastboot Mode.
- Scroll to RECOVERY and press the Power button to select it.
- At the next screen scroll to install zip from sdcard and press the Power button.
- At the next screen scroll to choose zip from sdcard and press the Power button.
- Find the Superuser-3.2-arm-signed.zip file you placed in your Nexus S internal storage. Make sure it is highlighted and press the Power button.
- Confirm you want to do it.
- Let the Nexus S do its thing.
- Once it is done reboot the device and you will be back at your homescreen.
- Done.
Conclusion
Enjoy Jelly Bean or Ice Cream Sandwich with root access.
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rooted nicely thnx for your article… :)
One more thing – to prevent recovery from being overwritten, you have to rename /system/recovery-from-boot.p to recovery-from-boot.p.bak
This stops the file restoring the stock recovery.
per http://androidforums.com/galaxy-nexus-all-things-root/465309-clockworkmod-recovery-error.html
Very nice article. Just rooted my Nexus S i9020T for the first time. Went smoothly. Thanks
Nice, thanks for the post.
This might be useful: I forgot to copy the Superuser zip before entering recovery so I rebooted, copied it and tried again. When selecting recovery from the menu the phone showed an image of an Android with its guts exposed and a big red exclamation mark. Let me tell you, the word “brick” was bouncing in my head for a few seconds.
I removed the battery, powered it on again and worked just as normal as before so I powered it off, flashed the recovery again and next time it worked like a charm.
Thanks for the guide, it works like a charm – even on Linux. You just need to be root or use sudo to run the fastboot command, with your local recovery image location (such as ~/Downloads/recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-crespo.img) instead of C:\Android\recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-crespo.img
Koodo radio doesn’t work out here in Quebec City suburbs but works downtown. It must be an old config because it worked fine with GB
Where could I get a better radio.img?
@ashraf how long does the whole procedure take?(without considering time for downloading the drivers n stuff)
i have a nexus s i9023 n i recently upgraded to android 4.0
:) thanks for the guide. Worked great.
@Vincent: It should connect to telus or try changing the network manually.
Thanks for the article. Very useful.
@Jaime, i did the same mistake and your comment was useful in restoring things back. Thanks.
How long should the “Wait for it to do its thing” take? It really takes a long time and it still says “waiting for device”…
@Everyone: You are welcome!
@Dwayne Fernandes: Less than 5 minutes.
@Derp: Then something went wrong. It doesn’t take long at all.
Rebooting the device makes the procedure successful. The only thing is rooters should have some amount of patience. This will only pay in the longer term.
I Did everything exactly and everything is done….but my phone stayed the same normal , no root :( (i was rooted on gingerbread before)
I had trouble with the custom recovery image whose link is provided.
First, when rebooting in recovery, the option to “install zip from sdcard” didn’t show. Only “install recovery from SDCard”. Then After flashing the file “recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-crespo.img” and rebooting the phone would halt in the white Google letters.
So, I then installed the recovery-clockwork-5.0.2.0-crespo.img when I first rooted gingerbread (a couple of months ago) and it worked perfectly! The file size is 4.136 Kb instead of 1.662 Kb… all options available now.
Then installing the superuser (root) was a breeze!
I upladed the file here: http://tinyurl.com/c7lrl5h for all those who have trouble with the above.
Good luck!
@Keoni:
I used ur reovery clockwork…..they said it worked, when i rebooted my phone and checked it nothing is new (normall , still no root)
@Firas:
The recovery clockwork only installs the recovery software.
Basically rooting is a 3 step process:
1) Unlock bootloader (all information is lost in the process so make sure you backup)
2) install clockworkmod recovery (after a successful install you can make nandroid backups and restore data – this is probably the most useful “side effect” of rooting)
3) install superuser
Follow the step by step guide above and hopefully you’ll succeed.
If it fails please make sure you’re doing it for the right phone model: Samsung Nexus S (mine is a i9023).
@Jaime: This was very useful to me because I did the same!
Will not work for some reason…..when i try to download and install something in the SDK manager it wont do anything it fails and dont install anything…..plus….the fastboot oem unlock just sits and says waiting for device…..everytime i try to do it…..i have followed everything i was supposed to do to root my phone before i even started……this is fail
Article has been updated for Jelly Bean.
Use one click root—-rooted my nexus s in about 30 seconds
i did everything as followed. when i try to unlock the bootloader by typing fastboot oem unlock, it just sits at “waiting for device”. im running jellybean 4.1.1, please can someone help me?! i really want to root my device..
nevermind, i figured it out. I didn’t properly install drivers for android 1.0 that’s why it didn’t prompt me to unlock the bootloader.
@Dylon: I had the same issue… just follow these steps: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=875580
Come man. You don’t warned that erased all the data. A lot of important files are lost, because you!